ON LOVE; PART CCCLXVIII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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The Gospel of Thomas

These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.

(14) Jesus said to them: “‘If you fast, you will bring forth sin for yourselves. And if you pray, you will be condemned. And if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits. And if you go into any land and wander from place to place, (and) if they take you in, (then) eat what they will set before you. Heal the sick among them! For what goes into your mouth will not defile you. Rather, what comes out of your mouth will defile you.“

(15) Jesus says: “When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your face (and) worship him. That one is your Father.”

(16) Jesus says: “Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the earth. But they do not know that I have come to cast dissension upon the earth: fire, sword, war. For there will be five in one house: there will be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father. And they will stand as solitary ones.“

(17) Jesus says: “I will give you what no eye has seen, and what no ear has heard, and what no hand has touched, and what has not occurred to the human mind.” ¹⁴

In the last essay we began our look at this fifteenth saying from the Gospel of Thomas and while there is no direct comparison to any saying in the accepted New Testament, we did follow along somewhat with the Thomas’ commentators into some of Jesus sayings that they see as having some bearing on this seemingly obscure thought of the Master. We have ofttimes said that the individual apostles and  gospel writers view the events of Jesus Life according to their own vision; in discussing a previous saying we noted the difference between the view of Peter and the view of Matthew when they try to respond to the Master’s question of “Compare me, and tell me whom I am like” (Thomas 13). We noted here that Peter’s response was the more spiritually focused while that of Matthew, while not carnal per se, did reflect his view of the Master as the man in the world. Here, in this saying at hand we can see this reality of different views again as Thomas recalls this saying and deems it of importance while the other writers perhaps do not; or,  perhaps the others are confounded by it and hence they do not report. We do note that in the four accepted gospels there are many such instances where one writer sees a thing a certain way and another does not see it the same or does not report on it at all and in this understanding we should note that an isolated saying reported by Thomas is really not that extraordinary except if one’s objective is to dismiss this gospel as a fake which is the way that we have been reading the commentaries that we have available, they are dismissive of this work and at the same time exhibit little desire to understand any of the words.

In our look around for sources of information on this gospel we find some that are pro and some con as regards its authorship and origin but we have not yet found any writing that discusses these purported words of the Master as though they might be such and it is this work that we have taken on to do for a time with the hope that this will lead us to some greater Truth. If nothing else, it gives us reason to explore some of the Master’s words from the accepted gospels that we may not have touched or at least not in the way that our comparisons creates for us. Our purpose in writing IS after all to explore His words and hence our title: In the Words of Jesus; what better thing could happen than to find more of His words and their meaning.

Again we have no position on the who and the when of the writing of these words but we should add here that in the sayings that we have heretofore discussed, there is nothing Truly alien to our own view of the Master’s message and teaching and, since our view is itself a departure from the accepted doctrinal interpretations of His words, it is not surprising to us that there are so many against the possibility that Thomas’ words may be the Master’s. And our saying here is no exception; obscure and mysterious as it may seem to some, it is but a statement of fact to us. There is NONE that are NOT born of a woman in this world of men, this IS the natural way of coming into this world but, we can see that it is within the ability of the True disciple who has overcome the world, to take on form at will as we believe that the Master did after His resurrection. Here in this view there could be some relationship to the ideas of this saying which talks of on who “was not born of woman”. We have covered several times these sayings from the gospels where those who knew the Master well could not recognize that it was Him that they were speaking with at the sepulcher and on the road as well as we read in that the rather direct saying from Mark’s Gospel: “After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country” (Mark 16:12). While this saying from Mark is from a section of his gospel that is disputed as authentic by some, these words do confirm the story that we note from Luke’s Gospel where the Master accompanied two disciples for some distance and who did not KNOW it was Him till the end. We can add to these mysteries the sayings that show the Master appearing and disappearing at will which, if we can but see the possibilities, can show us the True nature of the body of man and the control that the True disciple who can move that mountain will have over his physical environment.

Can we see these ideas at play in this saying by the Master? Can we see that He, as the resurrected Spirit that we call the Christ, can take upon Himself form at will and that this form IS NOT born of a woman? Can we see here how this could be the Father, as the words of the Master, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30) are universally applied and not only from the perspective of Jesus Life in this world? And can we see the Truth that if another can come into that same spiritual state of the Master, that state where he can clearly say with Him that “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), that this is a divine being of whom we could say with the Apostle Paul that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). Of course this type of talk will cause our being called heretical but there are so many sayings in the gospels and the epistles that show us this spiritual relationship that we share with the Master and while doctrine prefers the mystical approach of uncertainty and the singular divine nature of Jesus the Christ, we have the reality of His words that in our perfection that we will be like Him: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40). These are not just idle words.

So then are we saying that the perfected disciple who IS as the Master can appear and disappear as did the Master and take on form at will? perhaps; this IS what the words tell us and not these words only as the Master goes here again in the rather nebulous words from the Apostle Johns Gospel that tell us of our ONENESS with the Master and with the Father and, we should of course see these ideas from a spiritual perspective as carnally these are not fathomable. Saying such as:

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:20-23).

Here we should understand that the word pray is a translators insertion as this word is rendered as ask in most translations; in this affirmation by the Master He sets for us a stage where we can see that if we can believe in or believe on Him that we are to be deemed as with the Eleven. Here we must remember the import of this idea of believe in and believe on, that is means that we keep His words; this IS not the simple mental or emotional affirmation but it IS as Vincent tells us: to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴. The rest of this is that Truth that makes us spiritually the same as He IS; in keeping His words we ALL find unity and we find our place in ONENESS with the Christ and with the Father and in the same glory as we can see in the Master through the words of His apostles. Finally, we can but imagine the Truth centered in this final saying that as we achieve this divine expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul in this Life that we ARE : “made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me“. There are other sayings that point to these same ideas but this is the more straightforward; others include reference the much misunderstood Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which IS for us an Aspect of God but for the doctrinally minded, a separate entity.

Our view here is more complete that is was in the last essay where we saw this “one who was not born of woman” as a rather impossible thing and again we have the reality of revelation, where just a glimpse can lead us to greater understanding of His words. If we Truly believe that we can be as He IS then this is not only within the Providence of the Master but us as well; us to whom He says: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). In the obscurity of the idea of the Father God, we should be able to see these words of the Master according to Thomas, that if one reaches this state of being where the God Within IS fully expressed through the form in the world, this same one could be seen as the Father as the separation of these aspects is not separation at all.

Moving on to the next saying we find that the sixteenth is much the same as the words from the accepted Gospels albeit worded and ended a bit differently. We read in the synoptic gospels that:

• “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.  35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36).
• “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law” (Luke 12:49-53).

For us these are rather easy to discern and here the doctrinal view is rather similar in its approach albeit along their normal lines of seeing the causal believer as the True believer. We will discuss this further after we cite some of the commentaries on Thomas’ Gospel as we normally do:

• Marvin Meyer writes: “The theme of standing, or stability, is found in Gospel of Thomas sayings 16, 18, 23, 28, and 50. According to accounts concerning the famous gnostic teacher Simon the Magician, he referred to himself as the standing one. The Nag Hammadi tractate entitled Three Steles of Seth applies this epithet to the divine, and adds that God ‘was first to stand’ (119,17-18).” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 76).
• Helmut Koester writes: “Thomas’s version of these sayings [10 and 16] lacks Luke 12:50, certainly an addition by the author of the Gospel. Also missing in the Gospel of Thomas is the pedantic, and certainly secondary, enlargement of the family relationships at the end of Luke 12:53. Instead of Luke’s “division” (vs. 51), Gos. Thom. has ‘fire, sword, and war,’ probably an expansion of the original reading of Q, ‘sword,’ which is preserved in Matt 10:14.” (Ancient Christian Gospels, p. 94).
• Funk and Hoover write: “The saying has been varied in the three sources: Luke appears to be the middle term between Matthew and Thomas. All three versions are ‘I have come’ sayings, which, in the judgment of most Fellows, is a Christian formulation: Jesus is represented as sent from God to fulfill a specific mission (‘I have come to . . .’). The Fellows doubt that Jesu spoke of himself in this way, because they doubt that he thought of himself as having been assigned a messianic role. Further, part of this passage is based on Mic 7:5-6. Thomas has considerably revised this group of sayings from its Q form, which the Fellows took to be the more original. It is the form, not the content, of this complex that Fellows could not attribute to Jesus.” (The Five Gospels, p. 482).

There is another rather lengthy commentary which offers the same criticisms and again none look as the words as though from a gospel but rather in the assumption that they are taken from other’s gospels. The point of departure from the Matthew and Luke versions of this is, apart from the phraseology, the idea of the final words: “And they will stand as solitary ones“. This is alternately rendered as:

• “and they shall stand as solitaries” (Blatz).
• “And they will stand at rest by being solitaries” (Layton).
• “and they will be lifted up, being solitaries” (Doreese)
• “And they will stand solitary” (Lambdin)
• “and they will stand alone” (Patterson and Meyer)

There is quite an assortment of renderings here with several different implications and we should also note that the renderings that begin with the capitalized A in the word and have set this apart as a separate saying but there is no critical stop indicated in the interlinear which renders this as “and they will stand to their feet, they being single-ones“. We are using this idea of critical stop here and in other places as to note the end of a phrase and the beginning of another, a period if you will; when the placement in a particular place can have a effect on the meaning of the phrase and here it may help to define just who ‘they’ are. Before we address this however let us look at the preceding verses as they relate to the Master’s words in Luke and Matthew above. In a previous essay where our topic was service to the Master we posted these words: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law” (Matthew 10:34). Here we should see the inadvertent but necessary conflict that the Truth has with the ways of the world; in His day there were the Pharisees and those that followed in their teachings which, while appearing to be righteous teachings to many, were actually teachings of the world of men. The conflict here is with those who come to see the Truth set “at variance against” others, even those of one’s own house and today the same dynamics present themselves through modern day Pharisees and their followers who KNOW not the Truth. Our service here is to stand in the Truth of Love and by our example, when confronted with the world and its ways and teachings, that we do not shrink back.

We cannot state this any better today save to add that there is a reality to this division that is seen in Luke, Matthew and in Thomas and one that exists yet today although it is less likely along family lines in our more modern world where religion is a part of one’s nurturing experience and, there is no ‘alien’ doctrine here today such as the Master brought among the Jews 2000 years ago. There are family skirmishes no doubt but the greater division is that that is created by the unequivocal holding to one’s own doctrine against those who hold to another and this can be seen within and between the worlds religions. And here perhaps is the idea of standing alone as well; we mention this idea of standing in our words from In the Words of Jesus part 733 that we cite above. Here we stand in the Truth of Love against those that would call us heretics and our words blasphemy and, while we stand in this idea that we call Truth, the opposition stands as well, on their own, against us with their own version of the Truth.

Can we see the idea then in Thomas’ Gospel? how the forces on either side of the division stand against the other in their unmovable single-minded view; one right and one wrong but each claiming the right. Taken from our own perspective of which we speak above, we see this other saying as our motive: “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be” (John 12:26); we live by it, and alone at times. What we must remember here is that those in opposition to our view stand the same way believing that they too are right.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	Potency	Aspect of Man	In Relation to the Great Invocation	In relation to the Christ
GOD, The Father	Will or Power	Spirit or Life	Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN	Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Soul or Christ Within	Heart of God	Truth
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Life Within	Mind of God	Way

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

Today’s quote of the day is a repeat of the Mantram of Unification which is an affirmation of the Oneness of the human family from the perspective of the disciple and the aspirant and any who hold these ideals as important. In this we find the essence of the two ideas that we have discussed from Values to Live By and that these are firmly grounded in the desire to Love not hate; to serve and not exact due service and to heal and not to hurt. It is Love shown as Truth and justice that is at the heart of this mantram.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love.spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹⁴ The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/